Reviting Is The Soul Of Shit

Oh glorious day - not a Revit in sight.

Then I get this file for a government project - which, of course, requires everyone else to get their Revit on (but not me, because fuck Revit, that's why).  My firm had already designed and installed a fairly elaborate system on the second floor, and they wanted to do the same thing on the first floor.

Oh wait, I'm sorry - did I say the 'same thing'?  As usual, 'the same thing' was radically different, and the guy heading up the project has since sent me four different iterations (let's put all the equipment on this wall in one place, no wait, let's put all the equipment on the far wall, and distribute it, let's divide it up like this, let's divide it up like that).

No problem of course, because I can flip it, smack it, and send it on it's way - plus we are trying to get in on the front end so that our equipment takes precedence and everyone else has to work around it - and instead of plopping it into a Revit file where someone will promptly ignore it, the client actually has a (highly qualified) guy responsible for coordinating the different disciplines.

I was able to infer quite a bit of how the structure of the building worked from the old second floor project, but I went ahead and requested a structural plan - and found one column line was different (which was a mistake on the part of whoever did it the first time, as they had mistaken a grid line on the sheet for a column line).

That was a minor issue that nobody caught the first time, and nobody likely would have caught this time - I might've not caught it either, but then I received someone's sketch of proposed air handling unit locations - and while inserting them into my drawing noticed the discrepancy (along with noticing that some of the second floor columns in their model were offset - derp).

The beams going across were my biggest concern - as some are deeper than others.  Fortunately (for now) I will only have to go underneath one of them (instead of all of them - which is what would have happened if the HVAC reviteer had been allowed to lay out their equipment first).  Between sprinkler/water/air piping, ductwork, lights, and structure - even a high ceiling starts to fill up quickly.

Looking at .pdfs of their model (which is, thank god, the only way I have to be exposed to their model) they already have some return duct that is starting to threaten to impinge on my space, but I'm already forcing them to move some air handlers, so I may be willing to work around it.  It appears to be up against the deeper beams, but it also gets bigger and bigger as it makes its way back.

There was also a sad smattering of lights - some of which appeared to have attached themselves to one of the (doubtlessly massively bloated family) data racks and rotated to the angle of whatever the hell it attached to.  Whoever put it in was probably cussing as they attempted to insert it repeatedly, only to have nothing appear to happen (since the racks were most likely below their view range).

I can picture the conversation when someone finally notices it:

Revit Junkie: 'Why do you have lights attached to the data racks?  Did you mean to do that?' 

Electrical Designer: 'FUCK YOUR GODDAMNED FUCKING BULLSHIT MOTHERFUCKER'

Revit Junkie: 'Hehe - yeah, Revit can be a pain sometimes - you just have to learn how to do things its way!'

Electrical Designer: 'FUCK DOING THINGS REVIT'S WAY - AND FUCK YOU FOR WILLINGLY BENDING THE FUCK OVER AND ACCEPTING IT!!!'

And the same goes for everyone out there still willingly bending over and accepting it - Fuck you, fuck Autodesk, and FUCK REVIT.

-S.F.

Next time: a (necessarily) brief review of the electrical 'improvements' in Revit 2017.